UK cleric slams Amazon, ‘gig’ economy

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, denounced the gig economy as “evil” and accused Amazon and other tech companies of “leeching off” the United Kingdom by avoiding taxes.

Welby, 62, who was an executive at Enterprise Oil and Elf Aquitaine before switching careers, urged businesses to work toward a more just society and encouraged workers to join labor unions in a speech to the Trades Union Congress in Manchester, northern England.

“Not paying taxes speaks of an absence of commitment to our shared humanity, solidarity and justice,” he said Wednesday, focusing on Amazon.com Inc. and other online firms. “If you earn money from a community, you should pay your share of tax to that community.”

The level of tax paid by large U.S. tech companies is a contentious issue in the U.K. Many of them — along with other multinationals — have moved profits to countries such as Luxembourg and Ireland to lower costs.

Amazon issued a statement saying it pays all due taxes and looks after its employees in the U.K., where it has invested more than 9.3 billion pounds, or $12.1 billion, and created 25,000 jobs.

“We pay all taxes required in the U.K. and every country where we operate,” Amazon said in a statement last month. “Employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package ... as well as a company pension plan.”

Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“They don’t pay a real living wage, so the taxpayer must support their workers with benefits,” Welby said of the companies. “And having leeched off the taxpayer once, they don’t pay for our defense, for security, for stability, for justice, for health, for equality, for education.

“The gig economy, zerohours contracts, are nothing new — it is simply the reincarnation of an ancient evil,” the archbishop said. A gig economy depends on short-term contracts or freelance work, as opposed to permanent jobs with benefits.